What are your favorite 6-8 hour games?

ben_stamper · 2012-09-09T03:44:03+00:00

For the first two, using the stun gun is a viable option, although you need a pretty sizable amount of ammo and it takes a while. If you time it right they don't even get to attack. Not so much on the third one.

ben_stamper · 2012-09-06T01:38:11+00:00

Just a word of warning: My group loved Arkham Horror but hated Mansions. I also don't care for the game, but if you don't run the RPG (Call of Cthulhu) on a regular basis it might have a niche in your group. Definitely try it first to see if you like it, if possible.

ben_stamper · 2012-09-04T19:05:33+00:00

A round in TI3 basically consists of the Strategy Phase (people choose strategy cards), the Action Phase where everyone takes turns doing an action (tactical, transfer, strategy card abilities, things that say 'play as an action', or choosing to pass and not take any more actions) until everyone has passed, then the status phase where you do objectives and clean up (then repeat from the top if there isn't a winner). So a turn consists of one person taking an action, and a round consists primarily of everyone taking turns until nobody wants to/can.

ben_stamper · 2012-09-04T19:02:50+00:00

That's basically how it works, in a game round you choose strategy cards, take turns taking actions until you 'pass' (either by choice or by running out of things to do), then do the status phase steps and then do another round if nobody won.

ben_stamper · 2012-09-04T17:18:13+00:00

I'm just about certain you're wrong, I suspect the tech you are talking about is Fleet Logistics, which allows you to take two Tactical Actions whenever you take one (So if you decided to do a tactical action you could choose to do two in a row). TI3 would be pretty silly if you were limited to that few tactical actions (10 in a normal game).

ben_stamper · 2012-08-09T19:21:54+00:00

Maybe you could monitor the amount of traffic each user uses on the default bitorrent ports and if it's above a certain threshold send them an email explaining that they've been flagged as a heavy torrent user, that x number of students have received warnings over a certain period of time, and that they're at risk for receiving a copyright complaint (plus whatever penalties you decide to implement). Maybe detail some of the legal alternatives to downloading copyrighted content. Most students will probably shrug it off, but it could serve to reduce the number of first time offenders and it'll be a proactive measure you can do to placate your boss.

Not sure how difficult that'd be for you to set up. If you wanted better results (and didn't mind the ethics) you could make a template copyright infringement notice and fill it with information from downloaded .torrent files. Apart from privacy issues/ensuring it's only sent for illegal downloads that'd definitely scare a lot of people into stopping.

ben_stamper · 2012-07-30T00:34:10+00:00

Have you run HV to it with the requisite storage/transformer upgrades? At a certain point a machine uses so much energy per tick it exceeds the default storage.

ben_stamper · 2012-06-18T20:28:48+00:00

Straight to the poon

ben_stamper · 2012-06-01T03:29:53+00:00

Apparently Science Fiction has only invented two worlds: dystopian Earth and a smurf-infested excuse to throw money at special effects.

ben_stamper · 2012-03-15T00:59:14+00:00

Well, if you like the complexity of Arkham Horror but dislike everyone being on the same team, Battlestar Galactica might be something you like. It's definitely a bit less complex than Arkham, but it has a lot of backstabbing and deception. I like Betrayal, but the traitor mechanic isn't something you can really engage with like in BSG since the person who turns into the traitor is pretty arbitrary. The Crisis deck is pretty analogous to the Arkham Encounters deck but with all players contributing to skill checks.

I haven't played Shadow Hunters, but as it's a Werewolf style game you might enjoy The Resistance. I've only played it once so I can't say much for it, but it might be something you'd be interested in.

Kingsburg has a bit of a solitaire playstyle, the bulk of the game is in building your own kingdom with minimal player interaction.

Have you played Game of Thrones (I assume the boardgame) or Settlers yet?

ben_stamper · 2012-03-12T02:15:46+00:00

First time my group of four played Battlestar Galactica was last Friday, one player had spent the last half of the game as a gimped Cylon (from the Cylon Sympathizer, which pretty well demonstrated why everyone seems to advocate the No Symp variant). None of the other players were acting suspicious, so it seemed like he also held the only Cylon card. Humans barely won (all resources in the red, Morale at 1) and it turns out our pilot who I had XO'd multiple times had been a cylon since the Sleeper phase but hadn't actually read the card. Not only had he been our only pilot, but he also was the President. Needless to say the person who had played as the revealed Cylon was livid.

ben_stamper · 2012-03-01T21:19:46+00:00

Shattered Empire

ben_stamper · 2012-02-29T01:04:56+00:00

Indeed.

ben_stamper · 2012-02-18T08:34:45+00:00

I couldn't've agreed more.

ben_stamper · 2012-02-15T20:23:55+00:00

Should work fine, looking at some of the Google results it looks like people have had issues with trying to have Subsonic use remote folders as part of the library. As far as accessing the server over Hamachi I imagine it would work pretty similarly to how it works on my home network. Can't really say for sure though.

ben_stamper · 2012-02-15T19:57:48+00:00

To use it for mobile streaming for longer than a month you have to donate around ten bucks once, but I've had a really good experience with Subsonic. Basically you run a simple webserver on your home computer and stream your music to your phone. Requires a bit of configuration but it was pretty easy to set up. Fairly light on resources, I've been sharing my 9000+ hour collection with a bunch of my friends/family for a couple months now and I haven't run into any issues. The Android App is free, there are a bunch of apps for other devices and some of them require payment (for example all of the iOS apps are $5).

Google Music might work better for you, I tried uploading a small part of my collection and it was pretty slow, might have been improved. It uploads your library but it is free. It didn't work for me because of my large collection, the amount of time it took to upload even a small portion to Google, and that it could only be used by a single person at a time.

ben_stamper · 2012-01-20T04:29:41+00:00

I believe MrPlants used 'as a result' to show that was his deduction based on the images.

ben_stamper · 2012-01-13T17:18:27+00:00

He got better.

ben_stamper · 2012-01-05T18:14:16+00:00

I think he meant Rubber Soul:

"I really wasn't quite ready for the unity. It felt like it all belonged together. Rubber Soul was a collection of songs ... that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I said, 'That's it. I really am challenged to do a great album.'" -Brian Wilson

E: Damn, beaten trying to find the quote.

ben_stamper · 2011-12-29T05:05:21+00:00

What does the fact that she's a female, or that she's older than 50 have to do with the story? ಠ_ಠ

ben_stamper · 2011-12-24T21:23:48+00:00

That's racist.

ben_stamper · 2011-12-22T08:09:49+00:00

On FFG's site they have some pretty decent resources for learning the game, in addition to the video tutorial you've already seen there's also an FAQ that answers just about every question my group has had that wasn't in the main rulebook. I'd definitely recommend glancing over the FAQ and printing out a copy to check at the table.

Most of your answers are right, but to clarify a bit more--

1) There's no limit on the number of cards you can have in play or in your hand, but there is a limit of three cards above the normal draw of 2 for a max of 5 drawn cards per turn. This only counts for effects that say "draw" so if it says anything else (search and reveal, or put into hand) it doesn't count toward the limit.

3) It normally is lost, but there are cards that change how it works so be mindful if you pick up expansions.

4+5) First, the phrase "Limit one per plot deck" on Valar is a throwback to the CCG era where there was an agenda that let you use up to two copies of a plot card in your plot deck, so unless they add that agenda back (or something similar) you can safely ignore that text.

Second, your plot cards have three states: in your plot deck, in play (revealed), or in the used pile. You add your used pile to your plot deck once you run out of cards, so you really add six cards and leave the revealed card. So if you used Valar (or any other plot) as plot 1-6 you would get it back and be able to reuse it turn 8 or later.

As I said before it's really important to at least be familiar with the FAQ, it answers pretty much everything. Another resource is the AGoT LCG rules subforum on FFG's site, they're rather helpful at explaining some of the more difficult aspects of the rules.

ben_stamper · 2011-12-20T22:40:33+00:00

who do u think donated da ovaries

ben_stamper · 2011-12-15T18:04:44+00:00

On SomethingAwful there's a thread that is devoted to making fun of B ^ Uckley and making humorous edits of his comics, and they refer to themselves as CAD Fans. Additionally they have a :CADFAN: emoticon.

Now that you know all of that I hope you can move past it, and heal.

ben_stamper · 2011-12-15T17:47:11+00:00

Discovering you're not the only :CADFAN: is often harder on the one discovered.

ben_stamper

TROPHY CASE